Blunting tourism efforts

By AMADO P. MACASAET

‘The problem looks simple but as always it is the simple that the government finds difficult to solve.’

The government and the private sector are   excited about the prospects of tourism.  Resorts are coming up nearly everywhere.  Budget hotels dot Metro Manila.  Boracay has earned the reputation of having the best beach in the world.

Businessmen have been  building residences in the area, the latest being  the company of Andrew Tan.  

The number of visitors from South Korea and China is increasing steadily.  The richer visitors are attracted by gaming and Pagcor now wants to compete with Macau.  The gamblers come with their families who loll in the beaches while the father sits at the gaming table.

The arrangement is perfect.

However, we may not expect tourists from North America and Europe.  In fact, five airlines from these two continents have stopped flying to Manila.  

Maybe, they do not have enough warm bodies to fly. Maybe they do not wage a campaign to entice tourists to come to the Philippines where “there is more fun” according to the slogan of the Department of Tourism.  The foreign airlines find the Ninoy Aquino International Airport unsafe.  So they stopped coming to Manila.

As if in retaliation, governments of these airlines do not allow commercial planes from the Philippines to have landing rights in their territories.

The problem looks simple but as always it is the simple that the government finds difficult to solve.  Up to this day, NAIA is classified under Category II.  That means the airport is unsafe.

The airport has to be upgraded to Category I so that airlines in the Philippines, principally Philippine Airlines  and others may be granted landing rights in the United States and Europe.

There seems to be no clear direction or effort towards upgrading the facilities of NAIA to qualify for Category I.  One cannot imagine how the computer system of NAIA has been inutile probably from ill-planned programming.

This country does not have enough “check pilots” paid by government who examine the physical and mental condition of the commercial pilots before they sit in the cockpit to fly hundreds of passengers to many foreign destinations.

About the middle of the term  of Gloria Arroyo,   the Civil Aviation Administration  was granted funds for the modernization of air traffic communications.  The project was split in two.  There were two contractors who are presumed to have won  the right to do the job after a public bidding.

Nobody really knows whether the grant was efficiently used to upgrade the communications system.

Philippine International Air Transport Corp. (Piatco) partnered with Fraport of Germany to construct Terminal III, touted by the proponents as world class.  The contract with the government was cancelled by the Supreme Court.

The terminal was not constructed according to specifications.  No airline from Europe or the United States would dare land in the new terminal.  It is unsafe by their standards.  The present terminal is old, in fact antiquated by modern  standards.  

It is clearly in recognition of this fact that Ramon Ang, president of Philippine Airlines, announced that PAL will build its own terminal.

Otherwise it may not pursue a re-fleeting program that requires the acquisition of $9 billion worth of aircraft to be bought from Airbus Industrie of France.

Of course, PAL’s new terminal is its own.  It will not necessarily upgrade the category of NAIA to Category II.  PAL, which already operates Terminal II, will merely expand the facility for the convenience of its passengers.  

It may well be said that in promoting tourism, civil aviation authorities in the Philippines are putting the cart before the horse.  It should not take a genius to consider that airport safety is a first consideration for foreign airlines – particularly those from North America and Europe – to fly to Manila.

The Philippine Tourism Authority encourages investors to spend on tourism destinations.  Many oblige.  We are getting rising number of arrivals.  But there could be more if we can be elevated to Category I.

We will get more American and European tourists.  PAL gets landing rights in many airports in these two continents.  It is creating the best of both worlds.

Strangely, the government cannot see it.  The Department of Tourism does not look too eager to push the upgrade. It prides itself in the slogan “more fun in the Philippines.”  The tourism authorities have not come to grips with the fact that as far as Europe and the United States are concerned, there is hardly any fun flying tourists to a country that does not have a safe airport,not safe by their standards, anyway.

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email: amadomacasaet@yahoo.com